Fear: Time is the Root

February 8, 2011 Comments Off on Fear: Time is the Root

FEAR:Time is the RootBy J. Krishnamurti

”Fear exists not only at the conscious level but deep down at the unconscious level. There is the fear with which we are familiar and to which we have become accustomed. There is also the fear deep down,

hidden, concealed. Is it possible to be free of all fear? To understand

that, one must understand the whole content of consciousness. Now, you

have to understand the fact, not what consciousness is according to

somebody…you have to observe.”

This whole consciousness is of time – time being thought, thought being the response of memory, memory being the past, the past moving through the

present to the future in a limited way or in an expansive way. The whole

structure of the conscious as well as the unconscious is in the

framework of time – time being not only chronological time but also

psychological time. We have divided this consciousness as the

superficial and the hidden. The superficial is the educated mind, the

modern mind. And then there is the hidden mind. The hidden mind is all

the latent factors of the past; certain parts of it are awake, other

parts of it are asleep.

To become conscious, to know all the contents of our mind, requires an attention, an observation

which is attentive – not in terms of condemnation or justification, but

merely attentive.

Attention is necessary in order to find out the whole content of the unconscious.

I mean by ATTENTION a mind that is attentive without any subjective or

objective condemnation, a mind which is merely attentive. I must go into

the meaning of the word “attentive.” Because most of us do not know

what it means; we know only what it is to be concentrated, to focus the

attention, to focus the thought on a particular thing. And in that

focusing of the thought on a particular thing, which is called

concentration, there is an exclusive process – you are putting

everything aside.

Therefore, concentration is a form of RESISTANCE. Concentration is not attention because in attention there is no resistance. Attention

can concentrate; even then, it is not exclusive. One must be very clear

between these two facts: the implication of concentration, and the

implication of attention. In attention,

there is complete emptiness; otherwise, you can’t attend. Now,

if you are attentive, you listen to the noise of the train on the

bridge, you listen to the hoot of the train, you listen to the speaker.

But if you are concentrated, you cannot be aware of all this

extraordinary movement.

So, you need attention to observe the unconscious; otherwise, you cannot observe it. This means that the conscious mind must not see any

result, it must not wish to transform what it sees, it must not try to

interpret what it sees according to its likes and dislikes.

So the conscious mind must be attentively aware, which

means ‘aware without any preoccupation.’ The conscious mind must be in a

non-interpretative, non-condemnative state; this means it must be quiet

– quiet, not forced, not compelled. And that is only possible when

there is no ambition, when the conscious mind is psychologically free

from society – then the conscious mind can be quiet because there is no

resistance.

When the conscious mind is quiet – which means when the conscious mind is

attentive – it has no thought, it is empty but aware; then it can

observe.

This observation is not analytical or interpretative. This attention has no introspective or analytical

quality; the conscious mind merely observes.

Thought is the origin of fear; time gives soil to fear. So one has to

understand fear and be free of fear – not the fear of the snake, but the

deep down fear which gives sorrow, the fear which prevents affection,

the fear which clouds the mind, the fear which creates conflict, the

fear which brings about darkness. Most of us live in darkness and die in

darkness. If one would really understand that fear, one must understand